Stevoman wrote:Soon-to-be 2E here, can also answer questions, particularly about the PT program.

chem! wrote:I'm there (PT) so I'll probably only pass most of you on my way in for the evening. I'm so excited about not having to move that I'm ok with PT.

When I was in your place last year, I also felt "okay" about PT. But having almost finished a year in it, I can say with certainty that it is not something you need to feel like you are "settling" for. My student debt load is less than half than some of the peers I know, thanks to working during the day, and our social life is just as active - maybe even more so since we frequently go out in groups after class. Also, I'm going to be called an ass for pointing this out, but the average age in the day section is quite a few years younger than the evening section, and sometimes it shows.

Yes, you'll take an extra year to graduate. If you play your cards right, you'll also have way less debt and more work experience than your competition.

Also, I can't speak in general, but I know plenty of day students. It's not like there is an iron curtain or anything between the day and evening sections. You won't have trouble meeting people.

Thank you for such a nice post. Makes me feel even better about my decision to attend PT. I dont feel like i settled since i asked to be PT so i could keep working

Stevoman wrote:Also, I can't speak in general, but I know plenty of day students. It's not like there is an iron curtain or anything between the day and evening sections. You won't have trouble meeting people.

Once you're past the first year, PT and FT are completely thrown together. You'll have tons of classes that mix it up. SMU scheduling is pretty crappy, so a lot of the classes you'll need / want to take as a FT student will only be offered at night, and I'm sure there are certain classes that PT students want that are only offered during the day.

A lot of the interesting classes are taught by adjuncts who work all day, so they can only do early morning or evening classes.

Also, I don't know if they will tell you, but SMU is subscribing to the West study aids for next year, so your Westlaw account will give you access to various supplements like the Nutshell series, etc. So don't buy anything over the summer and make sure to check that out before you spend money on anything.

That being said, if you're prepared for class, you won't NEED to take that many notes. I know plenty of guys that write by hand, and do just fine. I bring my laptop and note everything the professor says, but that's only because I'd fall asleep if I didn't force myself to. For example, I typed up 62 pages of notes for Civil Procedure last semester, and not even a fraction of what I took down was on any of my finals.

I don't want to give you a definitive "you need to write this much" because it of course is different for everyone, but one could probably get by just fine only noting the rule, reasoning, and any policy for each case discussed. Really, your exams won't cover even 10% of the details you discuss in class.

Wes0568 wrote:THAT is good news. Does SMU make you wait before you can actually begin using your Westlaw password, and do they subscribe to LexisNexis as well, or do you have to pick one?

You will get codes to create your West and Lexis accounts at student orientation.

Wes0568 wrote:Thanks - very helpful. When classes start do they require you to learn to reseach the books in the library before your access codes are activated?

My class did not get Westlaw and Lexis codes at orientation, we had to wait a couple months so we could learn to use the actual books. I think they have changed that now. I hope they have. Anyway, part of your tuition and fees covers complete access to Westlaw, Lexis, Westlaw Next (yay!) and Lexis Advance (boo!).

Also, off the top of my head, Cortez and Kahn forbid laptops.

Side note: I know it's a long ways off, but I highly recommend taking Advanced Legal Research during 2L or 3L, because it will teach you how to research efficiently. You get used to being able to search anything and everything with complete access to Westlaw, and then BOOM! Firms aren't paying for that crazy-expensive subscription. Learning how to focus your searching and keep costs down will be extremely helpful. Keep that in mind for when you register for 2L or 3L classes.

My LRWA class got access to it right away, but we still had a few assignments in the beginning where they forced us to run around the library.

Haven't touched a book since those assignments...

kalvano wrote:Westlaw Next (yay!) and Lexis Advance (boo!).

I despise everything about Lexis, but they have some great secondary sources. Dorsaneo's Litigation Guide had one of the issues on my final memo last semester laid out in a perfect "malpractice for dummies" article. Saved me days of research.

1L's, 2L's and 3L's, I've zipped up all my outlines, notes, and whatever for various classes. Below is a list of what's included. Some of this stuff is mine, some is just stuff I found from various sources.

Admin Law (Kahn) - Exam outline, short sheet, canned answers, sample exams and answers (not Kahn), and some other outlines useful during class.

Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation (Turner) - Exam outline, short sheet, syllabus, an old sample exam from Turner, and an example answer (not to that exam problem, to another one, but I included it so you can see what she likes - it was an A- answer).

Con Law I & II (Eads & Higginbotham) - Some great outlines for Con Law I, as well as a PDF of a sample question & answer booklet. Con Law II, I had to learn it on my own because Higginbotham is useless, so it's a good all-inclusive outline.

Consumer Law (Spector) - Sample exams, some answers, couple outlines.

Contracts (Crespi) - Various outlines, notes, short sheet.

Creditors Rights (Hale) - Past exams (including a sample answer to one), Texas UFTA (you'll need it in class), a complete set of answers to every short answer question he has asked on exams, my outline, a short sheet, and a complete list of all the in-class problems with answers.

Criminal Law (Bellin) - An outline, checklist, and some random good Crim Law notes.

Employment Law (Shank) - Our exam, an answer, the slides he uses during class, and a couple outlines.

Environmental Law (Gaba) - An utterly amazing outline and a short sheet.

Evidence (Moss) - An outline, short sheet, and various other helpful things, including flash cards and hearsay practice questions. If you study some and use the Rules Short Sheet in this, you'll get at least a B+. The Short Sheet is phenomenal.

First Amendment (Bloom) - Various outlines, including mine and some other really good ones.

PR (Weaver) - 2 outlines and the slides she uses during class, some with her class notes on them.

Some do, but very few. But it's like closed book exams... for 1L you learn to cope with who you get.

Wes0568 wrote:THAT is good news. Does SMU make you wait before you can actually begin using your Westlaw password, and do they subscribe to LexisNexis as well, or do you have to pick one?

Orientation. You get both. I also heard a rumor that Bloomberg Law is coming soon as well. (Actually, looking at their website it looks like you can sign up for an account even if your school doesn't have a relationship).

brentsed wrote:Hi future 1Ls . Rising 2L here. Please PM me when you find ur classes we can make a deal on textbooks. I never wrote/highlighted in any of them. Also, I have a ton of study supplements that I'm willing to go for very low cost. Thanks.

He's not kidding. Those casebooks have got to be mint.

BTW, just a heads up: The school will tell you that books will cost about $2k for the year new, and that's right. But most of your books will be for the full year and you'll only be buying Con Law and some extra LWRA books in the spring, so expect to spend around $1600 in the fall and $400 in the spring.

What not to buy: the $35 BlueBook Interactive Citations Workbook. The "interactive" part of that means that you do the work online. That is, the questions that are in the book, which is the only reason you buy the book in the first place, are online. And you don't need any sort of code from the book to access them either. --LinkRemoved-- (Sorry to kill your sale on that Brent).

And while I'm on the topic of the BlueBook, the bluebook itself is $35 or so (and you're unlikely to find too many used since people hang on to them forever), and yeah, it's nice to have a hard copy. But what's nicer is the online version https://www.legalbluebook.com/. It's $50 for 3 years and is searchable. And if you ever need a hard copy, you can always borrow one from circulation while you're at the lawbrary.

[where to live]

Village is alright, and you'll have lots of company from classmates. It's a dense collection of two-story apartment buildings mostly built around 1965-1980.

Uptown area will also give you lots of classmates around you. Mostly more modern apartments (as in within the last decade) but a couple of older buildings in there too.

If you're looking for a yard and don't want to be too far away, there's the lower greenville/m streets/lakewood area (lots of 1920s to 1940s homes, with a sprinkling of classmates) or the neighborhoods just east of the village and north of mockingbird (lots of ranch style homes and a couple classmates). Historic East Dallas (Swiss Ave/Munger Heights) is also cool. If you're going this route, you'll just have to pick a day to drive the neighborhoods, preferably with an ipad surfing CL for new posts, and then be ready to sign a lease that day.

Last edited by BVest on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:39 am, edited 1 time in total.